


LXV

by nonamebut



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 6Dream comes back, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, ft the new nameless dream manager who is the only oc, hyuck bugs mark before some vlive showcase or smth, idolverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 15:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18501607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonamebut/pseuds/nonamebut
Summary: only you can make a goodbye sound a lot like a hello.





	LXV

**Author's Note:**

> i don't have a beta so any and all grammar oopsies are mine ;u; i'd appreciate it a lot if you let me know if i made any mistakes!

“Are you even listening to me?” Donghyuck’s glare is heated, the intensity rivalling the afternoon light streaming in bright and loud. Mark would be more intimidated if his boyfriend wasn’t also squirming in his lap.

There are a lot of things Mark would be intimidated by, if he hadn’t spent six years getting acquainted with Donghyuck’s little idiosyncrasies. Knowing when he’s hiding behind a mask of bravado is just one of the more harmless ones. 

“You woke me up just a minute ago,” says Mark as he finally sits up, briefly finger combing his bed hair. He wraps an arm around Donghyuck’s waist to pull him closer. “Okay, go.”

Mark’s just teasing, obviously. He heard the boy the first time. Listening to Donghyuck’s voice first thing in the morning’s got him feeling some type of way, okay? It’s been a while since he woke up to his favorite person in the world. (Sorry, Jaehyun.)

The force behind Donghyuck’s shove makes Mark reconsider, though. It’s far too early to deal with this particular pretense, and Mark almost loses it when Donghyuck says, “knew it,” in his most pitiful tone.

“I know, I know.” Mark cuts in before Donghyuck can go off on a tangent. “It’s the first NCT Dream comeback of 2019! The music video Doyoung hyung keeps hyping up is gonna drop in just a few hours.”

There’s an appropriately dramatic pause. Mark’s just humoring him at this point. “I already know that, though. So what are you really here to tell me?”

When Donghyuck brings out The Pout, Mark knows he just needs to push back a little bit more. It’s annoying, how the boy in his arms is simultaneously the most dramatic but also the most simple minded person ever, but at least it makes Donghyuck predictable in certain ways.

Nothing Donghyuck ever does is convenient for Mark, so all this? Considering everything that's happened lately... it makes sense.

“If you were listening, you would know,” Donghyuck bluffs.

Mark can’t control his expression any longer. “Don't tell me you actually want to spend your free time monitoring the music video with me? The very same music video you must have watched a billion times already?”

Outside Mark and Doyoung’s room, someone yells for Haechan to hurry up. Mark doesn't recognize the speaker at all, so it must be the new Dream manager SM hired after he graduated the unit.

“Stop laughing!” (Spoiler: Mark doesn't.)

One of Donghyuck’s hands sneaks its way under Mark's shirt, pressing against his side before pettily pinching his hip. When Donghyuck speaks again, he sounds exactly how Mark imagines the brooding male protagonist to sound like, the one from the manhwa he caught Donghyuck reading the other week.

“Are you really going to be like this?” A harsh sigh. “Don't make me mad.”

And Mark is not a romantic, not in the way Donghyuck is. He can’t watch Notting Hill without cringing, and there’s a reason why he can’t keep a straight face whenever the I Love You game is involved.

But lately, something about Donghyuck brings out the sentimental sap in him.

“This seems kinda familiar,” Mark mumbles as he traces a line up Donghyuck’s arm, up up up, his fingers brushing past a shoulder before lingering at a tense jaw. “Didn't you tell me the same thing, just before we got together?”

The silence that stretches between them is all too predictable. Mark tries again. “When you say mad, are you actually annoyed at something I did, or is it just you trying to get my attention?”

Donghyuck squirms in his lap again; this time, Mark struggles to keep eye contact. The sun in his arms gives the one in the sky a run for its money, with the way Donghyuck’s gazing intently at the bed sheets.

(See? Total sap.)

Maybe it’s how their schedules aren't exactly twinning anymore, how all the new habits Donghyuck’s been forming with the new Dream only make Mark more nostalgic of the past. Whatever it is, Mark feels a little dumb for not realizing it could’ve hit Donghyuck just as hard, too. A relationship is a two way street, and all that.

Donghyuck surprises Mark by being the one to lean in first. Closing his eyes, Mark remembers that their first kiss went a lot like this one: a stalling thing unexpectedly muted in nature, despite how touchy Mark is once he really gets into it.

He ignores how the hot noon heat makes it harder to breathe, how his sweat drips unceremoniously down his back and dampens his shirt. All Mark really notices is the breath that fans across his face.

They break apart with a soft click. Donghyuck, who always has a lot to say, says nothing. Mark’s thumb orbits around the big dipper on Donghyuck’s cheek.

“So? How about it?”

Donghyuck blinks, and Mark tries not to feel too smug when Donghyuck leans into his palm. “How about what?”

“If you were listening, you would know.”

Perhaps the tight pinch to his ear is well deserved. Now there's the boy Mark knows. “I heard you.”

Donghyuck hides his face in the crook of Mark's neck just to add, “Can't believe you're going to make me say it.”

“You know you don't need to ask to hang out with me, right?”

At the end of the day, Mark wouldn’t be Mark if he isn’t weak for one Lee Donghyuck. He’s not going to let the kid suffer that much.

“I'll wait for you,” says Mark as he takes Donghyuck’s face in his two hands, “so just get home safely, okay?”

“Okay,” Donghyuck says, and though the moment only lasts until Johnny bursts in to shout about being late to being early for the comeback showcase, Mark knows Donghyuck understands what he means.

While the Dream manager is distracted by some phone call, Mark walks Donghyuck to the door, waving at their hyungs as they pass their open rooms.

Donghyuck turns to look at him for one last time. “Don't watch the music video without me, okay?”

Mark isn’t one for dramatics, and he isn’t fond of pretense, either. Then again, he’s also a little bit too serious with himself, and way too invested in his work, his passion.

There are a lot of things about Mark that may seem intimidating to most people - it’s far too easy to write him off as someone just a little too enigmatic to understand.

But when Donghyuck looks at him, eyes searching for something, whatever that may be — Mark remembers those six years. Mark can’t be the only one who spent those six years learning about the person who pushed him to be an even better version of himself.

“I know,” Mark says with a smile. “Handshake for good luck?”

 

(“NOT ON MY WATCH!” The Dream manager yells from the kitchen.

The two boys jump apart. The other 127 members poke their heads out into the hallway, watching the new staff member go off about not wanting to waste anymore time.

“So no handshake?”

“No!” The manager wipes sweat off her brow. “Did you even listen to what I just said?”

Mark tries not to laugh as he waves a goodbye at a sheepish Donghyuck.)

**Author's Note:**

> no one asked but this fic ended up waaaay different than i first imagined/wrote the first draft to be :o i feel like its most evident in how the title and desc are move somber sounding than the actual content haha (but tbh i was just too lazy to think of a new one???? the title is a reference to [this](https://goddessriss.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/sonnet-lxv-pablo-neruda-i-wait-for-you-like-a-lonely-house/) and [this](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50646/sonnet-65-since-brass-nor-stone-nor-earth-nor-boundless-sea) btw) even if this didn't go the way i thought it would, finishing this finally broke my block so i'm happy ;u;
> 
> if you made it this far thank you so much for giving this fic a chance <3 i will sleep now lmao good night world
> 
> (also marta if u see this i love you thanks for sticking with me ;u; let's get that bread!!)


End file.
